This invention relates to spray booths for spraying a coating of flammable or toxic volatile material on an object and capturing substantially all of the overspray and volatile components of the material being sprayed in an exhaust system which conveys the contaminated air to a suitable decontamination/discharge system.
In many industries and in the photographic industry in particular, it is desirable to have a finish coating of lacquer applied to photographs or other objects to seal and protect the object from being soiled in normal usage. This is particularly important in high-quality photographs where a seal or hardener/protector is needed to insure that a photograph will last over an extended period of time in an undamaged condition.
As the awareness of environmental problems associated with highly volatile and toxic materials has become a major consideration in recent years, the practice of spraying volatile material such as lacquer coatings has required the provision of systems to capture the overspray and volatile components of the material such as lacquer and associated solvents and remove them from the area in which workers are present. In the photographic industry it used to be standard practice to lay photographs to be sprayed on a table and spray the whole table in an open room. Sometimes the operator wore a mask, but basically, no effort was made to properly remove the overspray and volatile components of the lacquer as the product dried in the open air.